Palin and Trump's Manhattan Pizza Date

By John Hudson

Reporters and passersby fogged up the glass outside of Famous Famiglia in Manhattan Tuesday, as Sarah Palin and Donald Trump met for pizza. The Republican Party's two biggest presidential teases got together as part of Palin's One Nation bus tour, a sort of hype-building whistle-stop jaunt across the East Coast. As Trump explained to CNN, they met to discuss the "specific candidates and potential candidates" for the 2012 presidential race. But neither reality star divulged anything of substance. "It was interesting. We're kind of on the same page there... she's a terrific woman" said Trump. “Every time you go to New York, you’ve got to see Donald Trump,” said Palin, exiting the Albanian pizza chain. "I approve of his independence.” But in the country's most saturated media market this meeting of the minds had to be a bigger story than that. Here's how everyone sliced it.

The New York Daily News got a hold of the owner of Famous Famiglia, Giorgio Kolaj, who played up the 'only in New York' trope. "It's amazing," he said. "You can't get more New York than that, Donald Trump ordering pizza here." The Washington Post details their order: "The group shared pepperoni, sausage, and meatball pizzas," while the Los Angeles Times and the Gothamist give (conflicting!) reports on Palin's table etiquette: "Palin ate her pizza with her hands," reported the Times. "Palin was eating her pizza with fork and knife... weird," noted the Gothamist. Meanwhile, blurry photos of the dinner by NBC show Trump clearly eating his pizza with his fork. The New York Times notes that Palin's daughter Piper and Trump's wife Melania also attended with The Donald wearing "a suit and blue tie." CNN reports that the unexpected visit is a tad less patriotic than the rest of Palin's itinerary. "The stop at Trump Tower was an unusual detour for the bus, which has kept to a strict itinerary of historic sites such as Mount Vernon and Independence Hall since its launch over the weekend." TheNew York Post barely noticed the story, with a mini-blurb about Palin's meeting with the "self-promoting presidential dropout."

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